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About Porsche

Dr. Ing. hc F. Porsche AG (often shortened to Porsche AG ) is a German sports car manufacturer, founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche, also the designer of the first Volkswagen. The company is based in Zuffenhausen, under the smoke of Stuttgart. Today, the company is owned by Volkswagen, which is again largely owned by Porsche SE .

There is another company called Porsche Consulting GmbH. This company has offered its services to other car manufacturers for many years. Studebaker, Seat, Lada, Daewoo and Subaru have all used Porsche’s knowledge to develop their cars.

The headquarters and factory are located in Zuffenhausen, but a new factory has been built in Leipzig for the Cayenne and Carrera GT. Part of the Boxster production was done at Valmet Automotive in Finland .

Porsche managed to sell 246,375 cars in 2017 with an impressive average win rate of 17.6%.

The History Of Porsche

For the first Porsche, the Porsche 64 from 1938, many parts of the KdF-Wagen were used. The second, the Porsche 356 (registered in Austria on June 8, 1948 ), was initially built in Gmünd, Austria , where the company had fled during the war.

After the production of 49 cars, the company moved back to Zuffenhausen. Many people consider the 356 to be the first true Porsche simply because it was the first model sold by the young company. Ferdinand Porsche worked with his son Ferry together on the design of the 356, but died shortly after the first prototype was built. As with the 64, the 356 used many parts of the Beetle, including the suspension, gearbox and internal combustion engine.

During production, the model evolved and many VW parts were replaced by Porsche parts. The last models were equipped with engine blocks designed entirely by Porsche. The body was designed by Erwin Komenda , who also has the design of the Beetle to his name.

In 1963 , after success in motorsport, the company launched the Porsche 901. This was another air-cooled car with the engine in the back. The engine this time was a 6-cylinder boxer engine. This car, the Porsche 911, which is still in production, is the most famous Porsche model. The car is very successful on the track, at rallies and also in sales. A cheaper alternative with the same bodywork, but with the 4-cylinder engine of the 356, was sold as the Porsche 912.

The Porsche 911 and 912 were therefore originally numbered 901 and 902. These numbers were chosen because in those days Porsche worked closely with Volkswagen and Porsche wanted an indication that matched the numbering of Volkswagen.

When one of the Porsche prototypes appeared at the Paris Motor Show in 1963, Porsche was called by Peugeot ‘s legal department, stating that Peugeot had used three-digit numbers with a zero in the middle since 1929 as the type designation.

If Porsche wanted to sell cars in France, it had to change the name. Given the size of the French market for Porsche, the name was changed at the time. However, there were already 49 cars of the type 901 built. The official name change to 911came on November 10, 1964 from chassis number “300049”. Remarkably enough, Porsche continued to use the zero in the middle for the race versions, without Peugeot objecting.

Porsche 356 No. 1

Porsche has always had close ties with Volkswagen. This was because Ferdinand Porsche developed the KdF-Wagen (later Volkswagen Beetle) for Kraft durch Freude.

The first Porsches used many VW parts, as mentioned above. In 1969, the two companies worked together to build the VW-Porsche 914 . Two engine types came out. The 914/4 and the 914/6, with the addition indicating the number of cylinders. The 4-cylinder was offered by VW and the 6-cylinder by Porsche.

In 1976, the partnership continued with the Porsche 924 . The 924 was actually intended as VW’s top model sports coupe. VW asked Porsche to design the car based on an existing Audi 4-cylinder. ( Audiis part of the Volkswagen Group .) The design therefore consisted of many VW and Audi parts, but was a real Porsche design. VW decided to stop the project because of the emerging oil crisis. Porsche bought the design for DM 100 million, but outsourced production to the VW plant in Neckarsulm, a short distance from Porsche’s own Stuttgart. So Porsche would own the design, but VW would build it. In the end, Porsche turned out to have correctly assessed the matter, because the car became a huge sales success and saved Porsche from financial ruin.

The collaboration continued. The Porsche 944, intended as a successor to the 924, was a full Porsche design, but production was outsourced to Audi for cost efficiency. The exception was the engine block, which was delivered completely by Porsche and only needs to be installed in the Audi factory. Porsche made an exception for the 944 Turbo and Cabriolet . This had a slightly different chassis and was therefore produced entirely in-house. Later, there was also cooperation between the companies. The Porsche Cayenne , released in 2002, uses the same chassis as the VW Touareg. This chassis is being built in the Škoda factory in Bratislava. (In addition to Audi , Škoda is also owned by Volkswagen.)

One of the most striking cars from Porsche is probably the Porsche 928. Even before the 924, Porsche was already planning to abandon the concept of an air-cooled engine in the rear. In 1971, Porsche therefore started to design a luxury, but therefore very heavy Grand Turismo with a powerful water-cooled V8 engine in the front. The 928 was originally intended to replace the 911. When the first 928 (as a 1978 model) was presented in 1977, after a delay due to the emerging oil crisis, it was even named ‘Car of the Year’, which was unheard of for a sports car. Production of the 928 did not end until 1995. As a result, the 928 became the longest produced Porsche model after the 911.

In 1996, the Porsche 911 GT1 was produced in an edition of 25 pieces. This then cost EUR 790,000 excluding BPM. This is the most expensive street version of Porsche to date.

The Porsche Panamera was launched in the autumn of 2009. The car is a four-door coupé with a length of 4.97 meters. With the arrival of the Panamera, the company appears to be continuing the trend of producing cars outside the usual market segments; the Porsche Cayenne also caused some commotion when it entered the market.

On March 1, 2010, the new Porsche 918 Spyder was presented at the Geneva Motor Show . The super sports car was designed by Michael Mauer and is powered by a 4.6 liter V8 engine delivering 450 kW (608 hp) along with two electric motors, one of 95 kW (129 hp) at the front axle and one 115 kW (156 hp) at the rear axle. The petrol engine is based on the 3.4 liter engine of the Porsche RS Spyder .

Acquisition by Volkswagen

The Porsche and Piëch families are the owners of the Porsche SE holding, in which the Porsche family has a tight majority stake, which in turn owns all shares of Porsche AG and 51 percent of Volkswagen AG. Porsche, which took an interest in Volkswagen at the end of 2005, systematically expanded its participation further. In May 2008 it already had effective control of the company with a share of 35%, in September this had risen to 42% and Porsche announced its intention to exercise options for another 30% to a total interest of 75% in mid-2009.

Pivotal in the takeover battle was Ferdinand Piëch, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. Piëch was chairman of the board of the Volkswagen Group from 1993 to 2002. Previously, he was project leader for the engine design of the 911 Boxer and project leader for Porsche racing cars such as the Porsche 917 . Since 2002, he has been chairman of the Aufsichtsrat (Supervisory Board) of VW AG and a 13% majority shareholder of Porsche. His objective was to bring both groups, which have strong historical ties, back into a family.

A battle started between Porsche and Volkswagen, which mainly concerned Porsche’s employee participation rights, which would be surpassed purely in terms of numbers by Volkswagen. However, both families settled this dispute at the end of October 2008. As a result of the acquisition plans, the company’s stock price was pushed up to such an extent that Volkswagen was for a short time the largest company in the world by market capitalization.

In July 2009 , the CEO of Porsche Wendelin Wiedeking was fired together with the financial topman, rumors of a takeover by VW became stronger as a result. On August 13, 2009 , it was announced that Volkswagen and Porsche will integrate into one group in 2011. At the end of 2009, VW had expanded its stake in Porsche AG (Sports car manufacturer) to 42%, while Porsche SE (Holding) conversely held 51% of Volkswagen AG shares. Qatar eventually received a 17% stake in the new group in exchange for EUR 7 billion. A few days later it leaked that the merger may already have started2010 could be completed. However, this took longer, but Volkswagen took over Porsche on August 1, 2012. Volkswagen does this by using a put-call option to acquire the sports car brand for 3.9 billion euros. After the takeover, Porsche will largely remain an autonomous company within the holding company. 

Motorsport

Porsche has always been very successful in the various branches of motorsport, with more than 28,000 wins. Especially in sports car races, such as the Le Mans 24 Hours , which Porsche has won 18 times, more than any other company, and in the Paris-Dakar Rally . Many private teams have also achieved success at the 24 Hours of Le Mans while driving a Porsche.

Porsche has been active in Formula 1 with varying degrees of success. They won one race from 1958 to 1964, in 1962 at the French Grand Prix. After almost two decades, Porsche returned to Formula 1 from 1983 to 1986. They provided engines under the Techniques d’Avant Garde (TAG) label for Team McLaren. This earned two constructors’ titles in 1984 and 1985. In 1991, Porsche once again returned as an engine supplier with disastrous results. The cars powered by Porsche engines did not score a point all season. Half of the number of races, the cars didn’t even qualify. Porsche has not competed in Formula 1 since.

Porsche took part in the Le Mans 24 Hours on June 14-15 with the RS Spyder in 2008 . The Dutch team Van Merksteijn Motorsport consisted of Jos Verstappen , Jeroen Bleekemolen and Peter van Merksteijn and achieved the victory in the LMP2 class.

A relic of motorsport is the ignition switch mounted on the left side of the steering wheel (something that is still common in every Porsche today). This is designed for the Le Mans start , where the driver had to run to the car at the start of the race, get in and start the engine. Because a Porsche can be started with the left hand, the right hand remains free to select the first gear.